Only a broken mind can understand that life's a trap when you're a rat.
Notes:
From FU Merch Table: 3rd in the series of releases coinciding with the Chinese Zodiac. 'Rat' is a Krautrock-influenced 12 minute blast with a massive finish. Recorded in the same studio as "What's The Story, Morning Glory?" in London and mixed in Toronto. The b-side is an original which treads somewhere between ugly glam and an FU take on Thin Lizzy style guitar harmonies.
Mixed Metaphors (Years of Rats):
Rats have appeared several times in the Fucked Up story; a few previous examples are outlined below, along with the usual cut and pasted random quotes. Some might be relevant to this release.
In their expanded interpretation of Marxist theory, the situationists asserted that the misery of social alienation and commodity fetishism were no longer limited to the fundamental components of capitalist society, but had now in advanced capitalism spread themselves to every aspect of life and culture.[1]
The "Baiting The Public" artwork was discussed in a LFG post dated December 2010:
Another important concept of situationist theory was... the construction of situations, moments of life deliberately constructed for the purpose of reawakening and pursuing authentic desires, experiencing the feeling of life and adventure, and the liberation of everyday life.[1]
"Dance Of Death" repeated the use of sleeping woman imagery, this time the subject is passively accepting death and the song is about...
Moving on to the Fucked Up / Haymaker Split , which combined rat and Nazi imagery, this time probably referencing state propaganda and the Pied Piper of Hamelin...
Going back a step, the Haymaker split references Philip K Dick's "Black Iron Prison", which could describe the imperialist lifestyle:
The fade out on the YOTR includes the "You'd better be prepared to pull the trigger" quote from John Mcain, which maybe expands the rat-race theme to its natural conclusion on the world stage. Likewise the "47 05" on the above insert might reference May 1947, the start of the cold war arms race. Or maybe not.
The End
The last ever post on Looking for Gold was David Eliade's top 10 list of Fucked Up Songs. Baiting the Public and Year of The Rat are 1 & 2. (It might not be the last post forever, but it was the last post before a long break)
And Finally
Rats Love Music, became a real thing with the release of this record (according to the credits). Rats Love Music is a subsidary of Hidden World Enterprises
One last thing...
 |
| Sleeve - Front |
 |
| Sleeve - back |
 |
| Vinyl - Printed labels See below for stamped variants |
Stats:
Tracks: Year Of The Rat B/W First Born
Year: 2009
Label: Whats Your Rupture?
Matrix A ?0109 A
Matrix B ?0109 B
Pressing Info:
3000 12"s
Inserts:
Lyric sheet as above
Variants:Year: 2009
Label: Whats Your Rupture?
Matrix A ?0109 A
Matrix B ?0109 B
Pressing Info:
3000 12"s
300 With white labels, most stamped, some with and without sleeves
No Test Pressings
(Thank you to Kevin Pedersen for the pressing info!)
Lyric sheet as above
- Regular - Printed labels, picture sleeve
- Stamped - White labels hand-stamped in black ink, picture sleeve
- 'Test Press' - Same as above stamped version, but with generic white 'DJ' sleeve and no insert. Made available at shows before the artwork was available, subsequently misidentified by 2nd hand market and sold as test pressings.
- Blue Stamp & Other Stamp Variants - White labels. A handful are stamped with blue, rather than black ink, there might also be a few with purple ink. The colours don't have a use / meaning and maybe just came about because the black ink was running out. The one pictured below came with a picture sleeve. There are also a few with blank labels that should have been stamped, but got missed...
 |
| Stamped labels - 'A' Side |
 |
| Stamped labels - 'B Side' |
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| Blue Stamp - there seem to be a handful of these out there. |
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| 'Test Press'(i.e. Vinyl and labels same as other stamped variants, but with generic DJ sleeve and no insert. The one on the left is the special 'upside down logo' variant...) |
From LFG Jan 23 2009: Finally, some of you may have noticed that in New York and Philadelphia, a few copies of the Year of the Rat 12" accidentally slipped into existence. If you got one, you are lucky. The rest will be released with a real cover and etc around the same time as No Epiphany, and we should have both in time for the UK tour in March.
Notes:
From FU Merch Table: 3rd in the series of releases coinciding with the Chinese Zodiac. 'Rat' is a Krautrock-influenced 12 minute blast with a massive finish. Recorded in the same studio as "What's The Story, Morning Glory?" in London and mixed in Toronto. The b-side is an original which treads somewhere between ugly glam and an FU take on Thin Lizzy style guitar harmonies.
Mixed Metaphors (Years of Rats):
Rats have appeared several times in the Fucked Up story; a few previous examples are outlined below, along with the usual cut and pasted random quotes. Some might be relevant to this release.
In their expanded interpretation of Marxist theory, the situationists asserted that the misery of social alienation and commodity fetishism were no longer limited to the fundamental components of capitalist society, but had now in advanced capitalism spread themselves to every aspect of life and culture.[1]
 |
| Dream of life on the other side. |
The "Baiting The Public" artwork was discussed in a LFG post dated December 2010:
The front image is meant to be a metaphor for what we thought we were in punk, and what punk was in the world (we were really into punk at that point) - a pack of rats running over a proper looking young woman in bed.The proper looking young woman is asleep, her body is present, but her mind, if it's active at all, is in a dream state, she's oblivious to the rats running over her in the real world. The LFG post goes on to describe the record as being a tribute to the actionist and situationist movements - the following is cropped from Wikipedia:
Another important concept of situationist theory was... the construction of situations, moments of life deliberately constructed for the purpose of reawakening and pursuing authentic desires, experiencing the feeling of life and adventure, and the liberation of everyday life.[1]
 |
| Hunch my back and bear my teeth, I'll kill you to get the things I need. |
"Dance Of Death" repeated the use of sleeping woman imagery, this time the subject is passively accepting death and the song is about...
...the imperialist lifestyle and how its been perfect and reproduced to such a dazzling extent, that people within it are convinced that it is the best way, and that they love it. Its like Stockholm Syndrome, when a captive begins to love and revered the captor. The Harbinger’s spiders laid their eggs inside all of our heads, and convinced us to keep dancing in the muck, because we love it."Year of The Rat" seems to take on these themes, in describing the rat race from the rat's perspective.
The push for more provokes the greed,
I struggle for the space to breathe.
 |
| Tails connect and pull apart Friends whose tails strangle the hearts of friends whose tails are wrapped around The necks of friends together bound. |
Moving on to the Fucked Up / Haymaker Split , which combined rat and Nazi imagery, this time probably referencing state propaganda and the Pied Piper of Hamelin...
The Pied Piper also featured in the first ever post on the Looking For Gold Site, the post is copied below, for posterity:
RATS
And bit the babies in the cradles,
And ate the cheeses out of the vats,
And licked the soup from the cooks' own ladles,
Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,
And even spoiled the women's chats
By drowning their speaking
With shrieking and squeking
In fifty different Sharps and flats
Welcome to the FUCKED UP log.
Going back a step, the Haymaker split references Philip K Dick's "Black Iron Prison", which could describe the imperialist lifestyle:
Everyone who had ever lived was literally surrounded by the iron walls of the prison; they were all inside it and none of them knew it.
This ball of fear that grows together,
The want for freedom becomes the tether.
A thousand rats and appetites pull,
A thousand ways to bind it tighter.
Take my chance to grab an inch,
When something snares me I don't flinch.
When it pulls I just pull back,
I feel my liberty losing slack.
The fade out on the YOTR includes the "You'd better be prepared to pull the trigger" quote from John Mcain, which maybe expands the rat-race theme to its natural conclusion on the world stage. Likewise the "47 05" on the above insert might reference May 1947, the start of the cold war arms race. Or maybe not.
|
| Reaching up to touch the sky, The sun, the centre of my mind. |
The End
The last ever post on Looking for Gold was David Eliade's top 10 list of Fucked Up Songs. Baiting the Public and Year of The Rat are 1 & 2. (It might not be the last post forever, but it was the last post before a long break)
And Finally
Rats Love Music, became a real thing with the release of this record (according to the credits). Rats Love Music is a subsidary of Hidden World Enterprises
One last thing...
